Police officer's guilty conscience showed up late: Jarvis DeBerry

Danny Bourque / The Times-PicayuneDANNY BOURQUE / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE The FBI closed traffic on Danziger Bridge along US 90 on Saturday, September 26, 2009 to further investigate the controversial shooting incident that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Police close off the west side of Danziger Bridge on Saturday.

Blame Shakespeare. Blame Dostoevsky. Blame every writer, every great mind, every mother, father, grandparent and pastor who convinced us that a guilty conscience is a never-ending torment.

"There is no witness so terrible -- no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us." That's what Sophocles, the writer of ancient Greek tragedies said on the subject. And according to a popular proverb, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow.

But the theory that looking oneself in the eye or getting a good night's sleep is made impossible by gnawing guilt has been challenged by our police officers who confess to participating in atrocities and going about their daily activities as if they'd done nothing wrong.

Last week, former New Orleans police officer Michael Hunter was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for his involvement in a bloodbath on Danziger Bridge the Sunday after Katrina, Sept. 4, 2005. Federal prosecutors say the people killed and shot were unarmed and that the police attacked them without reason.

Hunter pleaded guilty in April to a conspiracy charge following the killings of Ronald Madison and James Brissette and the shootings of Jose Holmes, Susan Bartholomew, Leonard Bartholomew and Leisha Bartholomew. Hunter fired his weapon on the bridge but claims not to have hit anybody. In addition to the conspiracy charge, he also pleaded guilty to keeping quiet about the felonies that his colleagues had committed.

After Ronald Madison's sister read a victim's impact statement in court Wednesday, Hunter stood before U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance and said he was sorry for "not having the courage" to come forward sooner. Reportedly, his voice quavered. He told the Madisons that he knew his apology wasn't sufficient and that "hopefully, time and God" would help them heal. He asked Judge Vance for mercy, not for himself, he claimed, but for his family -- as if there is some way Vance could show mercy on them and he not be a beneficiary of it.

Judge Vance gave him eight years in prison, the maximum sentence for the conspiracy and misprision charges he admitted to. His sentence will likely be reduced if he helps prosecutors make a case against the other officers charged in the case, but, for now, Vance gave all the years she could.

"It is hard to imagine a more profound breach of public trust than what happened here," the judge said. She described the "appalling perversion" and shocking "savagery" of the police officers involved in the Danziger Bridge shooting and the subsequent cover-up.

While Hunter eventually did the right thing by admitting his own crimes and assisting prosecutors, Vance was not impressed at the amount of time it took for him to come around and do right.

None of us should be. Not only did Hunter continue working as a police officer, thereby implying that he was fit for the job, but he also let others celebrate him as a hero.

Former District Attorney Eddie Jordan secured indictments against Hunter and the other officers in state court in December 2006, and when the accused were summoned to court to enter their pleas, Hunter was one of the officers cheered, applauded and slapped on the back.

In a Shakespearean tragedy, Hunter would have walked through that cheering throng of supporters trying to scrub invisible blood from his hands. Sophocles might have had Hunter crack under the pressure and even harm himself for his failure to live honorably.

Instead, at Tulane and Broad, Hunter pleaded his innocence and maintained it until the case was thrown out for prosecutorial bungling. We can imagine Hunter breathing a sigh of relief at the idea that he wouldn't be held to account for his crimes.

Nothing Hunter has said or done suggests that he would have voluntarily come forward and admitted his guilt. To the contrary. His plea seems to be more about cornering some of that mercy he begged the judge for than a repentant spirit's desire to pay for what he did.

How does a police officer go to work every day if he knows he's participated in an atrocity? How does he live with himself if he knows he's preyed on the weak and vulnerable? How does he let himself be called a hero when he knows he's a villain? The conscience doesn't appear to be as terrible a witness as the ancient Greek playwright believed. At least, it isn't so powerful for some of us.